You can be sure that if rising sea levels forced the evacuation of the White House in Washington DC, the attitude towards global warming would be very different. This is precisely what recently happened to one of the buildings of the presidential compound of Kiribati, forcing me to move to higher ground.

To the people of Kiribati, an island nation of just over 105,400 people and comprised of 33 atolls scattered in the central Pacific Ocean, global warming and the rising sea levels are very real threats. Indeed, at some point perhaps towards the end of the century, we will have to think about relocation. As has been documented by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, two small uninhabited Kiribati islets, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared underwater in 1999.

Major challenges

Water, or rather the scarcity of it, also poses one of the major challenges for several Pacific Island Countries, especially the Smaller Island States (SIS) that have no river systems and have very sensitive groundwater resources typical of atoll island structures.

The SIS includes Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Niue and the Cook Islands. The Kiribati islands are narrow and do not have enough land area for water reservoirs. In addition, the majority of our people don’t have catchments to store rainwater. Therefore we rely mostly on underground waterways.

But as the land mass becomes narrower, the ability to retain groundwater will be substantially reduced to the point that it will no longer be able to provide the population enough water. The narrowing will also result in coastal erosion.

We have always recognised the necessity of conserving our freshwater reserves. Our extreme vulnerability to short periods of drought and seawater infringement of our fresh water sources makes it absolutely vital that we do so. The porous nature of our coralline soil also makes the water lenses highly vulnerable to pollutants and contaminants.

As a result, water shortages are not unusual and where water is available, maintenance of its quality and suitability for consumption imposes additional costs. The dense population of our urban centres further exacerbate these problems. It is clear, therefore, that human settlement and climate change determine the quality and availability of freshwater sources for our people. The government and all communities must be firmly committed to the preservation and conservation of these resources.

Strong political will and direction is needed by the government to protect and island water resources wisely. We also need to improve sanitation services to prevent dirty water from contaminating the water supply. We have to live above the water lanes from which we need to draw water, which raises not only an array of sanitation issues but health issues as well. These are the challenges we have to face. We are also looking at the eventuality of having to transport water to the islands, especially if rain is scarce and the groundwater dries up.

My government has agreed to use the phrase “Water for Healthy Communities, Environment, and Sustainable Development” as a motto, which will be incorporated into our national water policy. Part of that policy involves actively undertaking severalinitiatives addressing water and sanitation concerns. These will be carried out in collaboration with relevant international agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Children's Fund, to name a few.

Rational policies

Our capacity to address our problems is limited by the resource situation. Without the input of donor communities, it will not be easy for us to address all these issues. At the same time, a significant part of the problem could be addressed at the management level rather than from external resources.

It is very important that these plans of action, which were discussed at international forums like the recent Asia-Pacific Water Summit held December 3-5 in Beppu, Japan, are also incorporated into national policies. Without rational water policies, it will be very difficult to address these issues in the long term. While there is a lot of discussion that remains to be done on the issue, the more urgent matters cannot wait and must be actively addressed now.

– IPS (The writer is President of Kiribati.)